BEATLES EVENTS

As many Spy Vibers know, this is the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond film (Dr. No) and the first Beatles record (Love Me Do), both of which amazingly made their debut on October 5th, 1962. The team at Abbey Road Studios did a meticulous remastering for a release in 2009 of the Beatles catalog in stereo and in mono. They then spent the last three years working on a special project to remaster and cut this material for the warm and lush experience of vinyl. All of the original British albums, plus Magical Mystery Tour and Past Masters collections of singles, will be released in stereo this Tuesday on record. See below for info about the double-decker mobile buses that will be selling Beatles items this Tuesday. Each record is available individually, as well as in a deluxe box set that includes a book. The mono records will be released in 2013. As a special celebration of these historic releases, a small number of high-end audiophile salons have been invited to hold listening parties to compare and experience the records on hand-built demonstration-quality British Hi-fi systems. These listening parties will start on November 19th at 7pm. 

Confirmed locations include:

• San Francisco: 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 19 – Audio Vision SF, 1603 Pine St., San Francisco, CA 94109.
• Los Angeles: 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Ahead Stereo, 7428 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036.
• Atlanta: 7 p.m., Monday, Nov. 26 – Audio Alternative, 895 Indian Trail Rd., Ste. 15, Lilburn, GA 30047.
• Dallas: 6 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 27 - Audio Concepts, 11661 Preston Rd., Ste. 280, Dallas, TX 75230.
• Austin: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 28 - Whetstone Audio, 2401 East 6th St., #1001, Austin, TX 78702.
• Chicago: 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 3 - Pro Musica, 2236 North Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614.
• Boston: 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4 - Goodwin’s High End, 899 Main St., Waltham, MA 02451.
• New York: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 5 – In Living Stereo, 2 Great Jones St., New York, NY 10012.
• Philadelphia: 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 6 – Community Audio, 8020 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19118.
• Washington, DC: 6 p.m., Friday, Dec. 7 - IQ Home Entertainment, 10890 Fairfax Blvd., Fairfax, VA 22030.
• More information from the Examiner here.

   In addition, special double-decker mobile buses will be selling the new Beatles records, box sets, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and other items in two US cities this Tuesday. More info at the Examiner here.

The buses will stop in the following locations:

New York:

• Midtown (9:30am – 11am): Seventh Avenue, between 49th Street and 50th Street
• SoHo (12pm – 1:30pm): Broadway, between Prince Street and Spring Street
• Wall Street (2:30pm – 4pm): Broadway, between Cortlandt Street and Liberty Street

Los Angeles:

• Hollywood (9:30am – 11am): Capitol Records, 1750 North Vine Street (at the Capitol Records tower)
• Santa Monica (12pm – 1:30pm): ICE at Santa Monica, 1324 5th Street at Arizona Avenue (seasonal ice skating rink)
• Downtown (2:30pm – 4pm): L.A. Live, at Olympic Boulevard and South Figueroa Street

   Beatles fans may also be interested to learn that Brian Epstein will be the subject of a new graphic novel and two bio-pics. One of the films will reunite Sherlock director Paul Maguigan with star, Benedict Cumberbatch, who has been cast as Epstein.

Check out our recent posts, including Neil Armstrong: One Last Step, New Beatles Releases, Interview with Playboy Bunny Deana, and our series, For Your Shelf Only, where guests share stories about collecting and show us some of their treasures. Series links: Jon Gilbert, Raymond Benson, Jeremy Duns, Peter Lorenz, David Foster, Rob Mallows, Roger Langley, Craig Arthur, Fleming Short, Matt Sherman. Check out my books Counting Sheep and Mort Walker Conversations. 

BEATLES MONO SALE 8:00am TODAY-Ended

Heads up for Beatles fans- Amazon will have the remastered Mono box set in their lightning deal today at 8:00 am (pacific). Unless you're sitting on a collection of their original vinyl, this is the definitive Beatles. The way they were meant to be heard. Big bass and drum, passionate, rocking! The Beatles recorded their catalog, from Love Me Do through the White Album for the mono experience. Stereo mixes were created in the studio after each session for the growing market of stereo owners. Although the stereo remasters are crisp and detailed, they lack the lush quality of the mono mixes. When I reviewed the stereo tracks with my record-collector pals in Japan, they summed the sound up as, "no sensuality." Well, this mono set has lots of it! A beautiful white box contains mini LP editions of all of The Beatles albums from Please Please Me to the White Album, as well as a set of all of the single and EP tracks. This box set was originally a limited edition and EMI thankfully began producing another run. The original price was $250- Amazon has the set on sale for $149. Additional Fab news on our BeatleVibe page.